With a Love Like Yours

After asking how each other was there really wasn't much to say, so we stopped talking for a little while. The silence was a little awkward, but slightly awkward silence with Gerard Way was much better than angry or apologetic silence with anyone else, and that was the only other kind I'd gotten recently. Angry silence with my parents wasn't an uncommon thing, especially in the last few days I had been there before.. before they kicked me out. I didn't even want to think about the reason they'd done it. It was so stupid. After they kicked me out though, when I talked to Mikey and the other few friends I had, there had been a lot of "I'm sorry"s and that always leads to no one quite knowing what to say or how to say it and that causes apologetic silence, which is even worse than awkward. It wasn't even really awkward silence. For one thing, it wasn't so much silent, as quiet, and there is a difference there, for another, we both seemed to be thinking about things so it wasn't too awkward to just be quiet. I had a lot to think about. I hadn't really gotten a chance to in the last few days. Everything had been happening pretty fast and I kind of just had to keep going constantly. It was nice to just sit and think. I looked up at Gerard a few times. He had the kind of face you could stare at for hours and keep discovering new things about. It also happened to be attractive enough to stare at for hours. After a bit though, I did get hungry. I had come here for lunch, after all.

"Um, hey, I'm gonna get something to eat," I said, standing up, "Are the veggie wraps any good?"

"Yeah, they're alright. The chicken ones are better though." Not that I could eat those. But he had no way of knowing that. We hardly knew each other, so I couldn't blame him.

"Cool, but I'm a vegetarian.." I told him.

"Oh. Uh, sorry," his brow creased in a way that made him look a little sorry, thoughtful, and just plain cute all at the same time. "Than yeah, the veggie one is fine." I nodded okay and walked up to the counter. The guy who took my order's name tag said Bob in those supposed-to-look-handwritten, but obviously computer generated letters. I wasn't really a fan of those. I mean, so many things seem like they're saying "oh look at me I'm being unique and original" when they're really still just so uniform. It's as if everything is supposed to be unique, but it has to do so in a specific way, otherwise it's wrong. Except certain people could pull off being genuinely original. I guess they just had to be the kind of people with obvious confidence who didn't care what other people thought, or at least acted like they didn't. Gerard for instance. He had fire engine red, shoulder length hair. Thinking about that I walked back over to the table with my wrap, which had come by then.

"Mikey should be here soon." I said, as much to let him know as to break into his thoughts. Gerard struck me as a kind of person who thought a lot, but didn't usually share what he was thinking and I could tell it would be close to impossible to know what was going on in his head unless he wanted you to.

"Yeah. Actually, look." Gerard pointed out the front window of the cafe and there was Mikey, walking towards the door.

"Hey guys." Mikey said as he stepped through the doorway. "Sorry it took me so long to get here. I had to talk to Ray." Ray worked with Mikey and I at the bookstore. He'd been there for a while and he knew his stuff better than most of us, so if there was a problem we generally went to him. "We got The Catcher In The Rye order worked out." Mikey said, more to me than to Gerard, as it wouldn't make a difference to Gerard anyway. I nodded and Mikey walked to the counter to order the chicken wrap that was apparently better than the veggie. I didn't really mind. I'd been a vegetarian since I was eight, which was when I found out just how animals were treated. The taste of meat was not worth the thoughts of animals being slaughtered like that. Other people can eat meat if they like, but I just couldn't. It seems so wrong. Mikey walked back with his wrap. "So'd you guys get to know each other?" I think he was hoping we had. Mikey can be kinda awkward and he probably didn't want to have to do much to make Gerard and I friends, or at least acquaintances. I glanced at Gerard and was trying to decide what to say when he spoke up.

"Yeah. Pretty much." He smiled at me a little. He had a very nice smile. His teeth were very small I noticed, but they suited him just fine.

"Yeah." I agreed. It was kind of true, though I definitely wouldn't mind getting to know Gerard Way a little (or a lot) better.